USDA Ends Annual Reports Tracking Hunger in America

Key TakeawaysThe federal government is ending Household Food Security reports after 30 yearsA 2024 survey showed 18 million households were food insecureExperts warn the decision removes a vital tool to understand hunger in America.MONDAY, Sept. 22, 2025 (HealthDay News) — For 30 years, Americans have relied on a yearly government report to understand how many families go without enough food. That report is now ending.The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced Saturday it will no longer publish Household Food Security reports, which began in the 1990s and have been used by state and federal agencies to guide food assistance programs, The Washington Post said.The most recent report, released in September of last year, showed that about 18 million U.S. households experienced food insecurity at some point in 2023, up 1 million households from the year before.The 2023 survey found that more than 6.8 million households faced severe food insecurity, meaning family members sometimes skipped meals, went without food for a day or lost weight due to lack of access.“These redundant, costly, politicized and extraneous studies do nothing more than fearmonger,” the USDA said in a statement.The decision comes as the department faces criticism over cuts to school meal programs, food banks and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as food stamps.Many experts pushed back against ending the reports.“It is also not redundant, as this survey serves as the official data source of food insecurity statistics,” Kyle Ross, a policy analyst at the Center for American Progress, told The Post.Barbara Laraia, chair of the Food Nutrition and Population Health Program at the University of California, Berkeley, called the USDA reports “the gold standard” for measuring food insecurity.“It has helped us measure how the federal food programs are working,” she said.“When families get squeezed, especially when there’s inflation and rising housing costs and food costs rise, they’re going to pay all of their fixed expenses first — their rent, their transportation, their utilities and then they’ll compromise on their food budget,” Laraia continued.The USDA reports have been published by both Republican and Democratic administrations for nearly 30 years.Critics say canceling them removes a vital tool to understand hunger in America, especially at a time when food costs and inflation remain high.More informationThe USDA has more on food security in the U.S.SOURCE: The Washington Post, Sept. 21, 2025.What This Means For YouExperts say this move makes it harder to track whether food programs are reaching the people who need them most..Sign up for our weekly HealthDay newsletter

USDA Ends Annual Reports Tracking Hunger in America

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